Fossil Plants at the Museum.

The collection of fossil plants in possesion of the Botanical Department ranks among the most valuable collections of this Kind in America. It is kept in one of the large rooms in the basement of the Botanical Museum, and is in charge of Dr. Robert T. Jackson. A few speciments have been disposed in the glass wall cases on the second floor, but the main collection is not on public exhibition.

The principal part of the collection was presented to the Department by Mr. Alexander Agassiz a number of years ago. About two years ago Mr. Elliot C. Lee '76, gave the sum of $3,000 for the construction of cases, in order that the fossils might be better preserved and arranged. The collection is now palced in seventy-five cases, with a holding capacity of 1,514 trays. Of these, 1,167 were filled when the last report of the collection was made, a year ago.

The great value of the specimens arises from the fact that most of them have passed through the hands of the late Professor Lesguerenux, who has been called the Nestor of Palacobotany in this country. Tweleve geologic llorizons are represented, the largest number of specimens being of the Carboniferous. Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. This latter gorup is chiefly made up of types from the collection of Heer, the eminent Swss pa aeontologist. Other specimens have been purchased with a portion of the Lee fund, among them a sereis of forty six choice slides of carboniferous plants, for microscopic study, prepared by Mr. Lomax, of Bolton, England. A few specimens were received from the Boston Museum. the acquistions of the past include a valuable series of fossils discovered in the Roxbury conglomerate by H. T. Burr '99, and a number of triassic plants from conecticut, presented by Mr. J. B. Woodworth of the Geological Department.